Thank You...

...Kathryn Shulz for articulating all the reasons The Great Gatsby isn't...
http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/schulz-on-the-great-gatsby.html

excerpt:
"The Great Gatsby might be the least funny book about rich people ever written. The British, who kick our ass at writing about class, know how useful a dash of humor is—how it can lift up or deflate, jostle or soothe, comfort or eviscerate.  In leaving that note out, Fitzgerald is not just making a stylistic choice, nor even just signaling his solemnity of purpose. He is all but inventing a new narrative mode: the third-­person sanctimonious. From the story of America’s self-consuming profligacy, corruption, and avarice, he omits himself and his moral proxy—and, by extension, us.

...Phillip Kerr for keeping the sardonic, world-weary and always honorable Bernie Gunther alive as he continues to search for his soul in what is now the 10th installment of the Berlin Noir series. Although after the plodding plotting of Field Grey and the somewhat formulaic locked door mystery claustrophobia of Prague Fatale, I thought Bernie had outworn his welcome on my bedside table...but from what I gather, the mighty Kerr is back in top form with this one that fills in a major gap in the life of the Marlowesque master of the defining detail...
 “The isosceles of muscles between her chin and her collar-bone had stiffened, like something metallic. If I’d had a little wand I could have used it to tap out the part for triangle in the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin.”

more at http://www.philipkerr.org

"I never met a shot I didn't like" 

...Carmelo Anthony for making it easier to spend game nights without biting my nails now that I don't really care about the final outcome and almost dread the prospect of another Knack-less Knick series.  You owe each of your hardworking teammates a brand new Lamborghini or two just for keeping you from being run out of town--as it's become abundantly clear that you just don't know how to share or play with others.  But you  do have a  sartorial splendor of sorts (the thuggish sort) off the court-- that could portend a future in the Hall of Frazier, if not Fame.

While I squander my time watching the Knicks squander their chances to recapture my affections, Ellen is usually tapping away on her Kindle juggling multiple contests with her Words with Friends foes--so for her and her crowd of logophiles, here're some unusual but acceptable words for Scrabble and Words with Friends players that employ common prefixes and suffixes .

 BEBLOOD, BECHALK, BEDIAPER, BEFINGER, BEUNCLED, DENUDER, ENDAMAGE, MISMEET, MISTRYST, NONEGO, OUTCHIDE, OUTECHO, OUTFROWN, OUTGNAW, OUTHOWL, OUTPLOD, OUTSNORE, OUTSULK, OUTYELP, OVERCOY, OVERFAT, OVERFOUL, OVERHOLY, OVERMEEK, OVERPERT, OVERSUP, SEMIHOBO, SUBSHRUB, TAKEABLE, GIVEABLE, DOGDOM, MOVIEDOM, SODALESS, LORNNESS. 

(Right) What many a domestic argument is really about...